Spotted! Wines of Alsace and France team up with the LCBO

The brands have launched a series of pop-up wine bars at LCBO stores in Toronto to drive sampling, and partnered with local food trucks.

Wines of Alsace and Wines of France have teamed with the LCBO to launch a series of pop-up wine bars at LCBO stores in Toronto.

Targeting their core audience of adults above the age of 35, the brands worked with Sopexa Canada’s Toronto office and Newad Experiential to open the wine bars, which offer sampling as well as education about French wines and the winemaking process.

Emilie Dyan, director, Sopexa Canada’s Toronto office, tells MiC that Wines of Alsace and Wines of France were also looking to reach out to a new millennial crowd by partnering with food trucks like Fidel Gastro and Urban BBQ to leverage their growing popularity.

To help promote the pop-up wine bars, the wine companies have relied on the social media channels of the food trucks, as well as the Toronto-focused food, lifestyle and entertainment website Spotlighttoronto.com.

Dyan says that this is the first time that Wines of Alsace and Wines of France have teamed with food trucks and launched a pop-up wine bar. She adds that these activations are an ideal way to link sampling to point of sale, noting that they also offer an opportunity to influence consumers who don’t necessarily know what they’re looking for.

The pop-up wine bars were most recently at the LCBO store at 10 Scrivener Square from July 25 to Aug. 1, and will appear next at the LCBO store at 2625 Weston Rd.